Overview

With a poignant speech in 1961, President John F. Kennedy made it clear that he wanted to see the United States be the first to land an astronaut on the moon's surface. The U.S. was in the middle of a race for the lunar surface with the U.S.S.R., which had successfully sent the first human to outer space, less than a month before. With the two super powers locked in the Cold War, President Kennedy set a goal to land on the moon by the end of 1969. With heavy costs of money and the loss of eight in the space program during that time, a nervous world witnessed as NASA created the Apollo program, developing a massive rocket ship from technology meant for missiles. The drama of 40 years ago played out on television and radio to worldwide audiences as the crew launched from the Earth, taking 4 days to travel over 219,000 miles to the lunar surface. Starting in late 2008, HD and still cameras were aimed at the moon, capturing it in a variety of ways to help one reach the moon within one's mind. The completed project was posted for the first time online, July 16, 2009 - exactly 40 years to the day that Apollo 11 launched into space to make history.